Back from vacation, time to recover!<\/p>\n
Serpopard<\/em>:<\/p>\n The\u00a0serpopard<\/b>\u00a0is a\u00a0mythical animal<\/a>\u00a0known from\u00a0ancient Egyptian<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mesopotamian<\/a>\u00a0art. The word “serpopard” is a modern coinage. It is a\u00a0portmanteau<\/a>\u00a0of “serpent<\/a>” and “leopard<\/a>“, derived from the interpretation that the creature represents an animal with the body of a leopard and the long neck and head of a serpent. However, they have also been interpreted as “serpent-necked lions”. There is no known name for the creature in any ancient texts. [Wikipedia<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Noted in “Serpopards or Sauropods? \u2018Dead Varmint Vision\u2019 Makes Cats Look Like Dinosaurs<\/a>,” Philip J. Senter, Skeptical Inquirer<\/strong><\/em> (July\/August 2024, paywall):<\/p>\n Archaeologists use the term serpopard to denote a cat with an exaggerated neck, a motif that appears occasionally on ancient Sumerian and Egyptian artifacts. The term combines the words serpent and leopard. The former is a reference to the snake-like neck, and the latter acknowledges that apart from the neck, the animal is one of the big cats. It doesn\u2019t have a mane, so it is not a male lion, but it could be meant as a lioness. The significance of the elongated necks in these feline images is currently a mystery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unfortunately, the balance of the article is a clumsy putdown of creationists. Rather than emphasizing that removing the elongated necks makes them cats, a virtually irrelevant point, Senter should have disproven the sauropod contention by noting the lack of dinosaur\/sauropod features, then built up the cat contention by citing the various resemblances.<\/p>\n Still, an organic reference would have been better, but apparently nothing of the sort is available, which is not on Senter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back from vacation, time to recover! Serpopard: The\u00a0serpopard\u00a0is a\u00a0mythical animal\u00a0known from\u00a0ancient Egyptian\u00a0and\u00a0Mesopotamian\u00a0art. The word “serpopard” is a modern coinage. It is a\u00a0portmanteau\u00a0of “serpent” and “leopard“, derived from the interpretation that the creature represents an animal with the body of a leopard and the long neck and head of a serpent. \u2026 Continue reading